Matthew and Cassie's Big Climbing Trip.: Squamish Projects

This week our bouldering projects went down. We're really happy to have finished the ones we had our eyes on before our last week here. That means, of course, that we'll be picking up new projects to try and send before we leave.

The Chief

Largonian Bulge - V2

Cassie sends Swank Stretch - V5

Cassie stepped up this week and was the first of us to send v5 at Squamish. She had found a problem that she really enjoyed called Swank Stretch. It's a v5 and is her hardest granite boulder problem to date. It's a truly funky problem that starts with huge hands, then immediately goes into two very very small sharp crimps in a seam. I had tried it a few times and just couldn't seem to get enough purchase in the seam to make doing the moves possible. To add to the difficulty it's a very overhung problem that puts a ton of weight onto your arms. After getting your hands on the seam you have to do a huge move to a decent hold, and then do a very powerful move to a jug. So, it had a variety of different moves to it. Cassie tried it maybe 3 different days and on the third day everything came together. Quite an impressive send. She continues to work on Sloppy Poppy where she has the moves so dialed that she makes everything up to the final move look almost effortless. She's also working on Viper.

Swank Stretch - V5

I sent viper after 3 days of effort. Coming into the trip I had said I would be perfectly satisfied with doing some v4s so I was really surprised to build up enough strength to do it. The first move is really balancy, reachy and powerful. You basically squeeze the arete with your right hand and then do a drive-by move (falling into your other hand). If I hit it just right it works, but otherwise I can't hold it. Viper is called a "mega-classic climb" so I was really happy to do it. Other climbs also went this week such as: Easy in the Easy Chair v4 was very cool, as was the direct up variation called Palminator v4. Timeless v5 had a scary landing so it was nice to have a larger guy spotting me (thanks Josh!).

Viper - V5

Timeless-V5

We also went to Cheakamus with Mars and Kim. It's a sport area just a few minutes north of Squamish. We spent the day clipping bolts and watching a pro climber named Alex Hannold do some very difficult climbs. We also watched some other top climbers do some insanely long overhanging routes. I've never seen someone onsight something in the 5.13 range and it was tremendously impressive.

This coming week the weather may take a turn for the worse so we'll do our best to get some more climbing in. Cassie's parents arrive Monday and were super happy to meet up with them. It'll be nice to go for hikes and have some beers together!